Origin: Highlands (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 60.8%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon First Fill
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Average price: € 52.00
Official website: www.smws.com
Voto: 88/100
Back to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and its evocatively named bottlings, this time jumping into the Highlands with a sample from last August’s tasting pack, the bottle of which is already sold out in their shop.
The code is 135.23, where the first digit identifies the distillery (according to this handy guide) and the second the progression of the number of bottlings they have produced.
Whisky distilled on 19 August 2009 and aged 10 years in single cask, cask strength bottled, so in a new version for me of the distillery, very curious to try this shape-shifting chimera…
Tasting notes
Light gold in the glass, very clear.
Very buttery pastry on the nose, vanilla and soft with fruity tones of prunes, peaches, ripe apples, candied orange, splashes of lemon. Toffee. It’s not all as sweet as it sounds, there’s a sour and spicy undertone, given not only by the touch of lemon but also by impressions of anise and liquorice. As promised, an iridescent and multifaceted nose.
It’s a bomb of spicy heat in the mouth, with a flurry of pepper that strikes without warning, followed by a silky body where the sweet notes become sharp with unripe banana and apple, almonds, liquorice, blond orange, lemon again. There are also more accommodating aromas of marzipan, vanilla, tamarind (one could say cola, but it reminds me more of beverage syrup), but they compete for attention, ending up as supporting players. Wood in the background, with impressions of leather.
The finish is quite long, dry, of almonds, liquorice, spicy touches, a slight saline patina on the lips, apple.
An amusing, pressing whisky that knows how to entertain even without offering astonishing depths of aromas and flavours, a young juggler with those avant-garde tricks that may be a bit old-fashioned but always work.